Лейганн Доббс - A Whisker In The Dark

“Well one thing we know is it ain’t no ghost,” Stubbs said.

Nero would have laughed, if laughing wasn’t beneath him. “Of course not. Although half the town thinks it is. If there was a ghost, we would be seeing it.”

It was common knowledge that cats could see spirits from other planes, though humans seemed to find the idea hard to grasp. What did they think the cats were doing when they stared at the wall or into the corner, apparently at nothing? Since Nero hadn’t seen a ghost at the guesthouse, he was confident that Jed’s spirit had not returned.

“But that means the killer is much more dangerous. A human. A human who thinks he or she is getting away with murder,” Harry said.

Nero’s expression was grim as he looked down at the shovel. “We need to bring this to the attention of the humans before it’s too late. If my guess is correct, the killer is planning to dispose of it once the heat dies down.”

A rustling in the bushes startled them and they turned, ears like radar dishes figuring out what made the sound.

“Uh oh,” Poe said. “Looks like we may be too late. Unless I’m totally off my game, that’s the killer and they’ve come back to find a better hiding spot for the murder weapon.”

Twenty-Three

Ed should have been working in the west wing, but he wasn’t. We searched the house, finally bumping into him as he came in the back door that led to the overgrown gardens. He seemed surprised to see us and possibly a little bit guilty as he wiped off wet hands on his jeans.

“So, where have you been?” I asked.

A flicker of surprise at my accusing tone passed over his kindly face and I was speared with guilt. Was I jumping to conclusions?

“I was out by the water spigot washing off my paint brushes. I started doing the trim work in the game room. Would you like to see?”

“Not right now.” I glanced back at Millie. I probably should have prepared a line of questioning or something, but I hadn’t and suddenly didn’t know what to say. Thankfully Millie took over.

“Ed, we were just talking to Mike and he mentioned something odd about the conservatory,” Millie said.

Ed straightened, his eyes narrowing. Aha! I hadn’t been jumping to conclusions.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“Well, Josie here says that you haven’t done any work in there yet.”

Ed couldn’t meet my eyes. Or Millie’s. “That’s right.”

“But Mike said he was inspecting some work you’d done for structural integrity.”

Ed bit his lip but remained silent.

I took that as guilt. “Ed, what were you doing in there? Does it have anything to do with the treasure or the murder?”

Ed’s eyes widened. “What? No! Why would you ask that?”

I glanced at Millie. Mom was leaning against the wall, her eyes half closed. She was no help. Ed sounded genuinely surprised at my question. “Well, it’s obvious you are up to something. You lied to me. Why else would you do that?”

Ed sighed, his shoulders slumping. “Okay, fine. I admit I lied. But it was what you’d call one of them little white lies.”

A little white lie? About murder and treasure stealing?

Millie patted Ed’s arm. “Of course it was. Now, why don’t you tell us all about it so Josie can get rid of this silly notion that you had something to do with the murder.” She shot me a see-I -told-you-Ed-wouldn’t-do-anything-wrong look.

“Fine, but it will ruin the surprise. Better that I show you.” Ed gestured toward the hallway and we all started walking.

I had to admit, I wasn’t as convinced of Ed’s innocence as Millie was. He was leading us toward the conservatory and my mind kept telling me to run. If Ed was the killer and knew that we’d figured it out, wouldn’t he want to kill us next? Then again, he was an old man and we were three women. Well, two and a half if you consider my mother wasn’t operating at full speed. I figured we could take him and didn’t I owe him the chance to prove me wrong?

Millie didn’t seem the least bit worried and followed him right into the conservatory. I hung back in the doorway imagining how the conservatory, which had most of its windows boarded up and was in an isolated part of the house, was a great place to murder someone without being seen. Remaining in the doorway seemed like a good plan because then I could run if he tried something. There was no way I was going to let him get me inside the room and shut the door.

But then Ed did something surprising. He headed over to one of the windows and ripped off the plywood.

Mom, Millie and I gasped.

Underneath the plywood, the windows had been replaced and Ed had installed gorgeous hand-carved molding that was a replica of the original, now rotten, wood.

“Oh! It looks delightful!” Millie squealed.

Ed blushed and revealed the next window, and the next.

This is what he’d lied about?

Mom and I wandered into the room for a closer look. The wood was oak, stained and polished to honeyed perfection. The carvings were vines and flowers. The artistry was stunning. I turned to Ed. “Did you carve these?”

His cheeks reddened even further and he nodded. “Got nothing much else to do now that the missus is gone.”

“But why did you lie about it?” I asked.

“It was supposed to be a surprise. I was going to wait until I had all the windows done and show you all at once.”

I pushed words out around the lump of guilt that had formed in my throat: “Thank you. This is really above and beyond anything I was expecting.”

I couldn’t believe that Ed had done all this and I hadn’t been aware. Maybe I had been too focused on my lack of cooking skills. In my defense, the conservatory was in a secluded section of the guesthouse and he had done most of the work in his shop at home. I wouldn’t have heard the hammering. And since the gardens outside were incredibly overgrown, I never went back there so never noticed the windows had been replaced.

I ran my hand over the woodwork. “I’m sorry I suspected you.”

Ed looked down at his feet. “That’s okay. But why did you suspect me?”

I explained about the wall being original and how I’d thought maybe he had taken a map out of the wall we’d found Jed’s skeleton in and it had led to this area.

He shook his head. “Nope. No map. If I was a thief I’d have taken that ring, not some map. But now I wonder if that’s why she was acting so sneaky and secretive.”

“She?” Mom, Millie and I said in unison. Even Mom had perked up for that.

“Flora. I saw her coming out of one of the guest rooms and she was shoving something in her pocket and looking around to see if anyone was watching. She didn’t see me because I’d just come down from the attic stairs in the back. I can’t be a hundred-percent sure, but I could have sworn she was muttering something about it being the strangest map she ever saw.”

Twenty-Four

We found Flora in the front parlor dusting, if you consider sitting on the sofa and running the feather duster over the coffee table while watching the TV dusting.

She must’ve known something was up though because she eyed us suspiciously as we approached.

“What? I’m working on my break.” Flora seemed indignant. “You should be lucky I’m just not sitting watching TV. I get a fifteen-minute break every two hours. Federal law.”

I glanced at Millie. Was that really true? Didn’t matter right now, we had more important fish to fry.

“It’s not about that, Flora,” I said.

Flora’s eyes got a little bigger behind the round glasses. She stopped dusting and fiddled with the feathers. “Well, what is it? I cleaned that room like you asked me to.”

Millie sat down next to her and took her hand. Flora suddenly became very interested in the floor, the window, the table… anything so she didn’t have to look at us. “Well, what is it? Spit it out if you have something to say.” The tone in her voice didn’t match the gruff words. It was clear that Flora was hiding something. I hoped it wasn’t the fact that she’d killed Bob.